GnuPG 2.0.13 released

We are pleased to announce the availability of a new stable GnuPG-2 release: Version 2.0.13.

The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is GNU's tool for secure communication and data storage. It can be used to encrypt data, create digital signatures, help authenticating using Secure Shell and to provide a framework for public key cryptography. It includes an advanced key management facility and is compliant with the OpenPGP and S/MIME standards.

GnuPG-2 has a different architecture than GnuPG-1 (e.g. 1.4.10) in that it splits up functionality into several modules. However, both versions may be installed alongside without any conflict. In fact, the gpg version from GnuPG-1 is able to make use of the gpg-agent as included in GnuPG-2 and allows for seamless passphrase caching. The advantage of GnuPG-1 is its smaller size and the lack of dependency on other modules at run and build time. We will keep maintaining GnuPG-1 versions because they are very useful for small systems and for server based applications requiring only OpenPGP support.

GnuPG is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL version 3). GnuPG-2 works best on GNU/Linux or *BSD systems.

What's New =========== * GPG now generates 2048 bit RSA keys by default. The default hash algorithm preferences has changed to prefer SHA-256 over SHA-1. 2048 bit DSA keys are now generated to use a 256 bit hash algorithm

* The envvars XMODIFIERS, GTK_IM_MODULE and QT_IM_MODULE are now passed to the Pinentry to make SCIM work.

* The GPGSM command --gen-key features a --batch mode and implements all features of gpgsm-gencert.sh in standard mode.

* New option --re-import for GPGSM's IMPORT server command.

* Enhanced writing of existing keys to OpenPGP v2 cards.

* Add hack to the internal CCID driver to allow the use of some Omnikey based card readers with 2048 bit keys.

* GPG now repeatly asks the user to insert the requested OpenPGP card. This can be disabled with --limit-card-insert-tries=1.

On the FTP server and its mirrors you should find the following files in the gnupg/ directory:

gnupg-2.0.13.tar.bz2 (3854k) gnupg-2.0.13.tar.bz2.sig

GnuPG source compressed using BZIP2 and OpenPGP signature.

gnupg-2.0.12-2.0.13.diff.bz2 (231k)

A patch file to upgrade a 2.0.12 GnuPG source tree. This patch does not include updates of the language files.

Note, that we don't distribute gzip compressed tarballs for GnuPG-2.

Checking the Integrity ====================== In order to check that the version of GnuPG which you are going to install is an original and unmodified one, you can do it in one of the following ways:

* If you already have a trusted version of GnuPG installed, you can simply check the supplied signature. For example to check the signature of the file gnupg-2.0.13.tar.bz2 you would use this command:

gpg --verify gnupg-2.0.13.tar.bz2.sig

This checks whether the signature file matches the source file. You should see a message indicating that the signature is good and made by that signing key. Make sure that you have the right key, either by checking the fingerprint of that key with other sources or by checking that the key has been signed by a trustworthy other key. Note, that you can retrieve the signing key using the command

finger wk ,at' g10code.com

or using a keyserver like

gpg --recv-key 1CE0C630

The distribution key 1CE0C630 is signed by the well known key 5B0358A2. If you get an key expired message, you should retrieve a fresh copy as the expiration date might have been prolonged.

NEVER USE A GNUPG VERSION YOU JUST DOWNLOADED TO CHECK THE INTEGRITY OF THE SOURCE - USE AN EXISTING GNUPG INSTALLATION!

* If you are not able to use an old version of GnuPG, you have to verify the SHA-1 checksum. Assuming you downloaded the file gnupg-2.0.13.tar.bz2, you would run the sha1sum command like this:

sha1sum gnupg-2.0.13.tar.bz2

and check that the output matches the first line from the following list:

Internationalization ==================== GnuPG comes with support for 27 languages. Due to a lot of new and changed strings many translations are not entirely complete. Jedi, Maxim Britov, Jaime Suárez and Nilgün Belma Bugüner have been kind enough to go over their translations and thus the Chinese, German, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish translations are pretty much complete.

Documentation ============= We are currently working on an installation guide to explain in more detail how to configure the new features. As of now the chapters on gpg-agent and gpgsm include brief information on how to set up the whole thing. Please watch the GnuPG website for updates of the documentation. In the meantime you may search the GnuPG mailing list archives or ask on the gnupg-users mailing lists for advise on how to solve problems. Many of the new features are around for several years and thus enough public knowledge is already available. KDE's KMail is the most prominent user of GnuPG-2. In fact it has been developed along with the KMail folks. Mutt users might want to use the configure option "--enable-gpgme" and "set use_crypt_gpgme" in ~/.muttrc to make use of GnuPG-2 to enable S/MIME in addition to a reworked OpenPGP support.

Support ======= Improving GnuPG is costly, but you can help! We are looking for organizations that find GnuPG useful and wish to contribute back. You can contribute by reporting bugs, improve the software, order extensions or support or more general by donating money to the Free Software movement (e.g. http://www.fsfeurope.org/help/donate.en.html).

Commercial support contracts for GnuPG are available, and they help finance continued maintenance. g10 Code GmbH, a Duesseldorf based company owned and headed by GnuPG's principal author, is currently funding GnuPG development. We are always looking for interesting development projects.

We have to thank all the people who helped with this release, be it testing, coding, translating, suggesting, auditing, administering the servers, spreading the word or answering questions on the mailing lists.